I recently went to Riverview Cemetery to look at some things in the  
Shockoe Cemetery records, which are there. The guy there didn't have  
a lot of faith in the accuracy of the records, and I must say, I  
agree. Speaking of wrong names, my own grandfather, whose last name  
was Grotz, is listed as "Grotts." His mother in law, whose name I  
have in the family Bible and written by her own father as "Ida", was  
listed as "Ina." For some reason she seems to be "Ina" in most places  
now, it will probably never be corrected. My gr-gr-gr grandfather's  
middle initial was different from any other I had seen [he seems to  
have had several]. The names are all on typed index cards in a huge  
file cabinet, and on each card there is a referral to the plot and  
space where they are buried, which are all referenced in a set of  
ledgers, with all the graves in each plot listed, and each plot on a  
separate page. But I suspect here, too, there are errors. But what I  
wondered is where the original ledger that listed the burials has  
been taken to? Those typed index cards look like they were done in  
maybe the 1920s [just an educated guess] and later. But they were  
taken from an older book that listed all these burials, names,  
occupations for many, and place and cause of death. Where is this  
book? I believe it was still in the cemetery office in the old  
building across Hospital Street from Shockoe Cemetery as recently as  
the 1970s. But the building now seems to be apartments, and the  
groundskeeper's office is no longer there. Though when we went to the  
cemetery later that day, we did luck onto a man who works there, who  
had a map that showed the locations of all these numbered plats and  
graves, and he helped us find the exact locations of several.

So the extant records for Shockoe Cemetery can be very helpful, but  
beware of errors. And where is the original record book?

Nancy


-------
I was never lost, but I was bewildered once for three days.

--Daniel Boone

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